Sunday, April 7, 2013

Who Are the Living Dead?

Night of the Living Dead is a horror film directed by George
Romero, which was the first film that really started the Zombie genre.

i like green

The film starts with two siblings going to a cemetery, zombies
start to come out, and the brother gets killed. The sister runs into an
abandoned house for hiding, and meets a strong man, who tries preventing
zombies from getting into the house.

What’s interesting about the film is that the distinguishment
between the alive and the zombies isn’t clear. The film does not give much
details on why the zombies are the way the way they are but the speculation,
which is that the radiation-covered NASA satellite retuned from Venus and
mutates the dead, and turns them into the living dead. It remains unclear from
the beginning till the end that whether or not those scary creatures are
humans. As a visual depiction, the crowds of zombies are not only consisted by
grown men, but also children, woman, and the elders. Though they behave like
monsters, their appearance is much like human despite the bloody mouth and
somehow weird-looking facial expression. The confusing visual representation builds
up the complexity of the enemy that the characters fight for.

Therefore it is easy to draw the conclusion that what the
living Americans fight against is partially themselves. Ironically, what turns
zombies into zombies is also the American because of the implicit suggestion of
the speculation. The zombie apocalypse in Night of the Living Dead can be
interpreted as human cannibalism. This conclusion can be more supported by the
ending, when the policeman kills the main guy in the film without a doubt, just
like killing a zombie. It questions the audience, what is the difference
between a zombie and a human being, what is the enemy that American is fighting
for. From this point, it is clear to see a connection between the unnecessary
death in the Vietnam War and the assassinations in the 60s. It was a public
fear that the death of human being is understated.

The later zombie films also tried to explore this moral controversy
and none of them had such a significant effect as much as in Night of the
Living Dead. The reason might much be the year that the film came out. People
in 60s could resonate with the fear in the film more.